Missing
by lemonjelly
Summary: [GC threeshot] What if Lindsey hadn’t been caught hitchhiking to see Sam? What if she’d just... gone? [Part Three of Three]
1. Part One of Three

**Disclaimer: They're not mine.**

**Spoilers: 5x03 Harvest**

**Rating: PG or K+**

**Summary: GC threeshot What if Lindsey hadn't been caught hitchhiking to see Sam? What if she'd just…gone?**

**Hey all! Okay, I know this has been done a million times over, but I'll try to do it differently. And if I don't do it differently, I'll try at least to do it well. **

**Thank you to the Wake The Hope supporters and reviewers – I was wondering if anyone would be interested in reading a GCR epic on the scale of Wake The Hope? I'm working on one called Isaac's Apple Tree – the question is, are y'all prepared to put up with another one of my monster-sized fics complete with pretentious quoting and GC angst? It's up to you. Do let me know.**

**Anyway – this is a three shot, as I've said. I haven't seen past CSI 6x15 Pirates of The Third Reich so I'd really appreciate no spoilers beyond that. Thanks. Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -**  
**

**Missing**

- o -

Part One of Three

- o -

The stoned teenager skidded his car along the tarmac and pulled up just short of one of the many glittering casinos along the sidewalks. His preteen passenger felt glad she'd remember to buckle in as the car jerked to a halt.

"Here ya go, lil lady, Fremont Street," he smirked and leant over his busted car's steering wheel to gaze up at the still-shining Rampart at midday. "You sure this is the right place?"

"Yep," the twelve year old chirped, as she opened the car door and jumped out. "Thanks for the ride, sir."

And the teen snorted with laughter at the little girl's politeness and drove off again. The blonde girl shouldered her backpack and marched right up to the open doors and straight through.

Once inside, The Rampart was a crazy blur of tourists and dancers and businessmen and waiters and bell boys and gamblers and adulterers – trying to make Sin City live up to its nickname. But Lindsey Willows was not fazed and headed right for the lobby desk, stood on tiptoes and looked the made-up woman behind the desk right in the eye.

"Hi, I'm here to see Sam Braun," she said clearly. The woman raised a penciled eyebrow.

"Have you got an appointment?" she asked dubiously. "He's a busy guy, yknow."

Lindsey raised her own eyebrows at the woman and answered, coolly, "I'm his granddaughter." But the receptionist did not look impressed.

"Even if you were – you'd still need an appointment," she replied and turned away as the phone on her desk began to ring. Lindsey rolled her eyes but didn't move from her spot – waiting for the receptionist to finish.

As she gazed around the lobby, one of the lifts along the rows embedded in the walls pinged open and Sam Braun stepped out, shaking hands with two middle-aged businessmen. He stood for a moment, watching them walk out and then turned towards the front desk. He stopped.

"Lindsey?"

And the woman on the phone paused to watch, mouth open, as the little girl ran to hug her grandfather.

"Hey... what are you doing here?" Sam asked ruffling her blonde hair. Lindsey shrugged her shoulders and beamed at him.

"Finished school early," she lied brightly. "I wanted to come and hang out with you. Are you busy?"

Sam Braun grinned – he'd never thought he'd hear Lindsey Willows saying that to him – not after all the conversations he'd had with Catherine. "Not too busy for you, kiddo." He told her fondly and took her hand. "Hey – how about we grab some lunch at the Orpheus? Just like when you were a kid?"

"Sure, that'd be cool." Lindsey replied as he headed over to the lobby desk.

"That'd be cool, huh?" Sam Braun smiled and turned to the receptionist. "Deborah, cancel my lunch with those Japanese guys, will ya?" and walked out of the front doors of the Rampart with Lindsey.

"Hey," he paused on the front steps, a thought occurring to him. "Does your mother know you're here?"

Lindsey scuffed her shoe on the floor and fixed him with wide, innocent eyes. "Of course she does, Grampa."

And Sam Braun grinned even more broadly.

-

It was just after one in the afternoon when Catherine swung into Grissom's office and found him looking through medical records on Daniel Perez.

"Blood came back Alicia's," she told him as he looked up. "So I'm back to thinking it's the mother."

Grissom tapped the folder he was reading. "According to this…" he began, but was cut off by Catherine's cell phone ringing. She glanced at him for a moment but when he shrugged his shoulders, she flipped it open and held it to her ear.

"Hello?" Catherine sat down in the chair opposite Grissom. "Yes, you are…Okay…What…? No. No, I didn't… Did anyone come and pick her up…?" Grissom watched as Catherine's face changed from confused to concerned to panicked.

"No, of course – okay – I'll come down right away." Catherine said numbly and shut the cell phone.

"What? What is it?" Grissom leant across his desk as Catherine tried to steady her hands.

"Lindsey didn't turn up for class after her lunch break – the school don't know where she went," she told him. She stood up shakily and smiled at him. "Can I have a bit of time off right now? I told them I'd go down to the school… Maybe see if any of her friends know something."

"Cath," Gil interrupted as her words began to run together. "Cath, slow down."

"No, I can't slow down," Catherine snapped and tugged her car keys from her pocket. "I've got to go."

Grissom watched her leave the room with a frown before he jumped up and dashed after her. He caught her just in the parking lot, as she ran towards her car, and took the bunch of keys from her hand as she made to open the door.

Catherine spun around at that, turned on him with eyes that blazed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she yelled. "Give me my damn keys, Gil."

"Go around the side," he told her firmly and nodded his head towards the passenger seat. "Go on."

But Catherine refused to move. "Grissom – don't mess around with me now," she warned him, her voice shaking with anger. "I'm not kidding."

"I'm not giving you your keys like this," he answered calmly. "Not for you to drive into a post you're so shook up. Now go around the side or neither of us are gonna get anywhere."

She stared at him, exhaled furiously and stormed over to the passenger side, flinging the door open and climbing in as he buckled himself into the driver's seat.

"Go on then," she said to him. "Go."

And he started up the car and rolled it out of the parking lot, down the street. Catherine raked her hair back from her eyes with a hand and rested her elbow against the Denali's door. She leant her head against her hand and stared out of the window as Las Vegas rushed past and not even the relaxed banter from the car stereo could take her mind off the thousands of heart-breaking possibilities in which her day could end.

- o -


	2. Part Two of Three

**Disclaimer: They're not mine.**

**Spoilers: 5x03 Harvest**

**Rating: PG or K+**

**Summary: GC threeshot What if Lindsey hadn't been caught hitchhiking to see Sam? What if she'd just…gone?**

**Okay, I'll keep working on Isaac's Apple Tree then. Thanks for the reviews, all – that's to Review1234 (jumped right in there first, huh?), Lizzy Sidle (how are ya? Haven't spoken to you in ages!), Just.Let.Go x3, DruisillaBraun, Gerardfan (aw thanks!), Coolcatz, Krys33 (Good! Another angst fan!) and Faith (yknow, I'm actually working on a Luby fic – just give it time!).**

**Anyway, my mind's gone utterly blank of things to say, so I'll cut it off here. Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -**  
**

**Missing**

- o -

Part Two of Three

- o -

Catherine was dialing a number into her cell phone as they sped past the Rampart, heading down Fremont. The cell phone bleeped twice, flashed something on the screen and promptly shut down on her.

"Damn it," she cursed and hurled her phone over her shoulder to clatter somewhere in the backseat. She turned her eyes skywards and dug her nails into the car seat. "Pick any other day to run my battery down. _Any_ _other_."

Wordlessly, Gil pulled his cell phone from his pocket and passed it across to her as he shifted gears and just about made the green light. He threw a glance across at Catherine, punching her sister's number into his cell phone, and wondered if she'd ever be able to make it if she lost both her ex-husband and her daughter in the space of a few years. He thought not.

"Nancy? Hey, it's Cath – you haven't seen Lindsey at all, have you? I mean, she hasn't turned up or called or anything…?"

Gil heard Nancy's voice sound through the receiver with indistinct words as Catherine closed her eyes tight shut and pressed her fingers into her forehead.

She let out a sigh, "Yeah – she just skipped school after lunch and no-one knows where she went…" Catherine bit down on her lip and nodded her head. "Yeah… yeah, I know. Thanks anyway…I'll let you know."

She ended the call on the keypad and began dialing her mother's number straight away.

"Well, she didn't go to Nancy's," Catherine muttered distractedly to Gil. He nodded slightly.

"She would've called you to tell you if Lindsey had turned up there. So would your mother," Gil mentioned and Catherine turned to him, mid-dialing. She fixed him with a cold stare.

"Well Jesus, Gil – there's no harm in trying," she snapped bitterly. "Would you rather I just gave up and waited for her to come home – if ever?" Her eyes burnt as she said it and then filled with tears; Gil looked uncertainly at her, stopped at traffic lights.

"Cath – you know that's not what I meant," he told her quietly. She blinked away the tears in her eyes and took a few long breaths before she continued dialing her mother's number.

"I know, I know – I'm sorry," she murmured and brushed her hair from her face again. "I wouldn't be such a wreck if we weren't running this case on Alicia going missing at the same time."

Just then, the police scanner on the car dashboard crackled and wheezed out some static. _"Attention CSI – dead body found. Decedent is suspected to be Alicia Perez."_

Gil dipped his forehead to touch the steering wheel for a moment as the lights winked to green and he drove on. Catherine just hung her head and continued to listen to the ringing tone of Gil's cell phone, pressed close against her ear.

-

The manager at The Orpheus had Sam Braun's table cleared and told his staff that Braun's table would be served first unless they were otherwise informed. That was the kind of treatment you got in Vegas if your name carried the weight of big bucks and reputation.

Lindsey loved it, just as her mother had loved it when she was a kid, sitting up at Sam Braun's table as the lions and tigers stalked their cages about the elaborate and showy Orpheus. It had all the glamour and excitement that she'd been looking for and, unbeknown to Lindsey, she sat – swinging her legs in the same way, ordering the same food – in the same seat as her mother had done when she'd been a little girl and Sam had taken her out as a treat.

Sam leant over his club sandwich and smiled at the twelve-year old, so desperate to grow up.

"Hey Linds," he began. "You remember the first time you came here?"

And Lindsey nodded, returning the smile. Her dad had promised to take her to The Orpheus for dinner one night, a school night, until Mom called it off – some kind of long-standing issue between her parents – she didn't quite understand. All she'd gathered then was that she'd missed out on dinner with lions and tigers because of her mother – and she gave her hell for it.

It was that weekend when Catherine called up Sam and asked him if he could make it up to Lindsey for her. Sam had obliged – anything for Catherine – and Lindsey'd sat at Sam Braun's table, right up by the lion's cage and stared, wide-eyed, until her food grew cold.

For weeks after that, the fridge back at Catherine's house was papered over with crayon drawings of lions and tigers – doing circus tricks and sitting at the table with Lindsey – and she told all her friends at school about her Uncle Sam and eating dinner with lions.

That was before she knew he was her grandfather, though. That was before a lot of things.

-

The car had barely stopped in Lindsey's school parking lot before Catherine had already unbuckled and jumped right out. She headed straight for one of the front doors as, somewhere inside, the school bell rang and kids began to move to their next classes.

Gil caught up with her as she waded through a busy corridor of kids, pushing past each other with their coloured backpacks. He'd just managed to catch hold of Catherine's arm when she noticed a group of Lindsey's friends paused by a drinking fountain in the corridor and she moved towards them, dragging Gil along behind her.

"Hey – Megan," she called out to one of the girls she'd recognised. "Hey, girls?" And they looked around to see Lindsey's mother coming over.

"Hey – do any of you girls know where Lindsey went today?" she asked them directly, trying to remain casual. The four girls looked at each other and then shrugged their shoulders, shook their heads.

Catherine sighed and bent down to look them in the eye. "This is serious, girls – please," she begged them. "You've _got_ to tell me if you know where she went or if she was meeting anybody…a boy, maybe? She won't be in trouble if she was. You won't get her in trouble if you tell me what happened. She could be in danger and I _just_ need to know where she is."

The girls shuffled uncomfortably on their feet.

"We're really sorry, Mrs. Willows," Megan spoke up for them. "We don't know where she went. She didn't tell us she was gonna cut class – she just did."

With a grim smile, Catherine nodded and stood up. "Okay, thanks girls."

She turned to Gil, sighed again, and said, "Maybe I should go talk to her principal or something. I don't know."

He touched her shoulder lightly. "Worth a try."

But the conversation with the school's principal was inconclusive. He'd called in Lindsey's teacher but she didn't know anything either. If anything, the meeting only made Catherine feel more uncomfortable as she listened to them attempt to cover their asses.

Lindsey had wandered off of school property by herself, they said. Normally kids don't try to walk out of school by themselves – they all know to stay inside. This was a rare occasion. And anyway, it was lunch break – there are lots of kids to keep track of. Lindsey simply…slipped through the cracks.

Slipped through the cracks?

'Slipped through the cracks' didn't help Catherine anything. She climbed back into the passenger side of her Denali as Gil strapped in behind the wheel and she considered with a sinking heart that, if all the world was as callous as Lindsey's school teachers, then her little girl didn't stand a chance.

"Let's just drive around the area for a bit," Gil suggested softly as she stared with empty eyes out of the window. "She can't have gone very far just walking."

And when his phone began to ring in her hands with Nick's caller ID on the screen, she answered it while Grissom shifted the car into gear.

"What's up, Nick?" she greeted with false enthusiasm.

"Catherine?" Nick's voice came back in surprise. "I thought I called Griss."

"You did," Catherine replied. "What's up?"

"Thought I'd call to let you know that the body we found was Alicia Perez's. Her mother confirmed it." Nick informed her and then listened as Catherine repeated the information over to Grissom. There were some muffled sounds as Catherine held the phone to Gil's ear instead.

"Okay," he said simply. "Thanks Nick."

And Nick hung up, a little confused. Catherine tapped her fingertips distractedly on the dashboard as the silence between them was filled only with the sound of some obscure folk and country radio station that the Denali had switched onto.

"Look," Catherine broke the silence. "You can go back and tie up the Perez case if you want to. I know it's bothered you as much as it's bothered me."

But Gil shook his head steadfastly. "No can do, Cath," he told her. "I'll go back only when we find Lindsey." And he looked over at her for a moment – she wasn't looking at him, but still gazing despairingly out of the window.

She didn't say anything in reply and he carried on driving to the country singer on the radio, _"Lie in bed and ignore the TV/Watch the clouds sift through the air/Oh, and you'll be in my arms again/There's no need to cry…"_

At that, he heard Catherine let out a quiet sob and glanced at her again, surprised to see tears streaming down her face.

"Damn country music," she muttered and smiled sadly at him as she switched off the radio. Gil didn't know what to say but pulled the car over to the side of the road and just looked at her. She rubbed the tears from her cheeks and then cried some more, with her hands in lap, uselessly.

After a while, it occurred to him that he had some tissues in his pocket and, when he handed one to her, she looked at it and laughed.

"Oh…man," she sighed and wiped her eyes on the tissue as Gil tried to show sympathy on his face as best as he could. Catherine shook her head and laughed between tears at herself, her mess of a life and then laughed only because it felt better than crying.

Gil reached over and placed a hand on her thigh, squeezed it reassuringly and told her, "We _will_ find her, Cath."

She nodded and blew her nose.

"We'll find her." He repeated.

Catherine touched his warm hand where it rested on her leg. "I know we will," she answered. "I know." She took a breath and smiled again at him. "You just keep on driving."

And Gil took back his hand, checked the mirrors and pulled out again – driving the car around in large, spiraling circles to cover the area – just like he'd been taught.

- o -


	3. Part Three of Three

**Disclaimer: They're not mine.**

**Spoilers: 5x03 Harvest**

**Rating: PG or K+**

**Summary: GC threeshot What if Lindsey hadn't been caught hitchhiking to see Sam? What if she'd just…gone?**

**Here we go – last part of this three-shot. I'll keep working on Isaac's Apple Tree. It's gonna be pretty long, I think. **

**So anyway, thank you reviews of the previous part – that's DrusillaBraun, Just.Let.Go x3, Dragonfly Faith, D.M.A.S, Krys33 and Littlesweetcupcake. I hope you have liked this short little fic. Read it, review it - and keep up the good GCR work. I've heard rumours about the season finale (and I don't want to be spoiled!) and it doesn't look too good, so get your GCR stuff out there. Keep the faith! Enjoy! Love LJ xXx**

- o -**  
**

**Missing**

- o -

Part Three of Three

- o -

Sam Braun's credit card came back to him on a small silver plate, his receipt for the lunch tucked underneath. He and Lindsey got up; he left a bunch of notes on the table and turned to her with a smile.

"So where to now, young lady?" he asked her. Lindsey Willows shrugged her shoulders and her blonde hair reflected the coloured lights in the ceiling. He checked his watch as they headed out of The Orpheus.

"What time does your mom want you home?" he inquired and Lindsey avoided his eyes when she answered.

"Oh – she didn't really give me a time." She answered casually.

That made Sam stop in the foyer of The Orpheus and narrow his eyes in suspicion. Lindsey swallowed once – she was gonna be in trouble now…

"She didn't give you a time, huh?" Sam repeated slowly. "Tell me, Lindsey – has your mother gone crazy or do you really think I'm that stupid?"

Lindsey blushed and tried to glare as best she could at her grandfather. He took her hand and they sat on the marbled front steps.

"Go on, Linds," he prompted in a quiet voice. "Tell me what's going on."

She sighed and rolled her eyes in a manner remarkably reminiscent of her mother. "I skipped school," she admitted grudgingly. "Well it's not like I'm missing anything important. And it's not like anyone cared."

"You didn't tell your mother?" Sam asked and when Lindsey shook her head, he groaned inwardly. "She must be going wild."

Lindsey scratched at the surface of the steps with a bitten-down nail painted in peel-off pink nail polish.

"I bet she doesn't even know I'm gone." She muttered darkly. Sam took out his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Well, we'll soon find out," he said. Lindsey scowled – her mom was gonna kill her.

-

They must've driven five circles around the school by now, and still no sign of Lindsey, though every blonde-haired girl she spotted made her heart jump. She was still leant up close to the car window, her eyes roaming the area and around and looking for any sign of her little girl – anything at all, when Gil's phone began to ring again.

"Hello?" she held it to her ear and stayed looking out through the window.

"Hey sweetie," her mother's voice sounded through Gil's phone again. "Sam called me – he couldn't get through to your cell. He's got Lindsey."

Catherine's head jerked away from the window and she grabbed Gil's arm tightly.

"What?" she snapped. "Why the hell has Sam got Lindsey? Where are they?"

"Calm down, Catherine," Lily told her, slightly affronted. "Why shouldn't Sam have Lindsey? She skipped school and went to find him. They're outside The Orpheus."

"Damn it." Catherine muttered angrily and hung up the phone. "Sam Braun has my daughter," she said to Gil in a cold voice. "Outside The Orpheus."

And, as Gil turned the car around, she leant her head back, hard into the headrest and blew her fringe from her eyes in frustration. Of _all_ people, Lindsey, she thought furiously.

-

Grissom pulled the Denali up alongside the front of The Orpheus and, once again, Catherine jumped out into the speeding traffic going the other way – running around the front of the car to the old man sitting on the steps with a tentative smile, beside the little blonde girl who shrank back from her mother.

"Lindsey," she yelled and pointed with a shaking hand back towards the Denali. "In the car – now."

"But Mom…" Lindsey stood up, beginning her protest.

"I'm not kidding, Lindsey – you get into that car, right now," she snapped, the fury in her voice attracting the attention of The Orpheus' customers. Lindsey rolled her eyes again and stormed off to climb into the backseat. But as she passed, she noticed her mother's red-rimmed eyes and felt a small pang of guilt.

When Lindsey had shut the door of the car, Catherine turned with blazing eyes to Sam who stood up, awkwardly.

"Cath…listen…" he began, holding his hands up in surrender.

"No, Sam – you listen to me," Catherine cut him off fiercely. "Just what the hell were you thinking? You think it's normal for Lindsey to just turn up on a Tuesday afternoon? Do you think I'd let her do that?"

"No I didn't – Lindsey told me that –" Sam attempted to explain.

"She told you what, Sam? That I let her skip school to see _you_?" she spat. "I _know_ you'd never believe that for a second."

Sam flinched a little. The tough-as-nails Vegas entrepreneur flinched under his daughter's fiery words. He watched her square up to him – three-quarters his height – and felt saddened. He'd really hoped that maybe Catherine had forgiven him, even a little bit, and had thought that maybe he could start making things up to her and Lindsey.

In the car, Gil watched Catherine tear into Sam Braun and glanced in the mirror at Lindsey – sulking on the backseat. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel in the silence.

"You want to listen to the radio, Linds?" he suggested. Lindsey looked at him, a stony expression on her face and Gil couldn't help but smile when he recognised it from Catherine so many times.

"No." She told him bluntly.

Gil unbuckled his seat belt and turned around to talk to her properly. "Yknow, your Mom was really worried about you," he said.

Lindsey scoffed and glared out of the window. "She was worried about how much work she was missing, more like."

"We were working a case on a girl who disappeared," Gil told her, after a pause. "She was about your age. They found her body when we were out looking for you." He turned back around in his seat and stretched his legs out.

"It really hit your Mom hard," he went on and Lindsey squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. "She thought something terrible might have happened to you. We see it happen enough."

"Only because all she does is go to work," Lindsey grumbled. Gil pretended he didn't hear her – he didn't know how to argue with a child, or how to be any kind of parent – he only knew how to speak honestly about what he saw.

"She cried." He said simply and watched Catherine and Sam argue back and forth. "She really does love you, you know."

And Lindsey couldn't find a smartass reply to that but only sank deeper into her seat and waited for Catherine to finish yelling at her grandfather and storm back to the car.

-

Just as Catherine had leapt from the car in the school parking lot and again before Gil had even stopped the car by The Orpheus, Lindsey Willows jumped out of the car as soon as it pulled into the driveway back at her house – threw the door shut and stormed inside.

Gil heard Catherine sigh once more beside him and looked at her.

"Told you we'd find her," he said and Catherine laughed wryly before following her daughter inside.

By the time Catherine and Gil were standing alone in the living room, Lindsey had already stomped upstairs and slammed her bedroom door. Catherine looked up the long staircase and then sat down on the third step up, sinking her head in her hands.

"You're not a bad mother," Gil found himself saying impulsively, hated seeing her like that – hating herself. Catherine lifted her head from her palms and raised an eyebrow.

"Huh – thanks," she muttered. Gil bit his tongue – he hadn't meant it to come out that way. He took a seat on the step beside her but left a gap between them, just in case.

"I didn't mean it like that," he told her. "You know I don't think that at all – I really meant –"

"It's okay, Gil," she cut him off with a smile and shuffled along the step, closing the gap. "I know what you meant."

Catherine rested her head against his shoulder and wrapped her fingers around his left hand as he moved his arm around her. She listened for any noise upstairs but Lindsey sat quietly, sulking on her bed, and Catherine closed her eyes leaning closer into Gil.

"I just wish sometimes that it was seven years back," she murmured wistfully. "And that all that really mattered was that we had strawberry yoghurt in the fridge and that Lindsey's Christmas Pageant costumes got finished in time. And Eddie was still alive and Lindsey didn't hate me."

She opened her eyes and blinked, tracing the lines on Gil's hand with a fingernail. He turned his face into her hair and breathed in deeply. It shouldn't have felt this natural, this normal, to be so close to her, he pondered vaguely.

"She doesn't hate you," he assured her in a whisper that found her ear. A small smile turned her lips.

"Well, it sure feels like she does sometimes," Catherine uttered.

Without even thinking, Gil held her tighter and pressed a kiss to her temple. "She doesn't hate you," he repeated.

Catherine paused and then sat up slowly, turning to him with a surprised look in her eyes and another smile on her face.

"Did you just kiss me?" she asked him. A red colour rose in Grissom's cheeks and the single word, "Sorry," escaped his lips shyly.

Catherine only looked at him, then at his hand in hers and shrugged her shoulders. "Don't be," she said. "I liked it." Then she laughed a little and glanced upstairs to Lindsey's closed bedroom door.

"Today's been a very strange day," she sighed. "I'm glad you were here." She stretched out her arms. "I think I should talk to her," she decided as she absently raised a hand and stroked his cheek.

"Will you stay here?" she asked. "I think I'll need you after this."

Gil nodded. "Okay."

"Okay."

And Catherine stood up and walked slowly upstairs to knock on Lindsey's bedroom door. As she turned the door handle, went inside and softly shut the door, Gil ran his hands over his face and smiled slightly. Catherine was right, today had been a very strange day. He sat on the third step up, fourteenth step down, and idly wondered if she really did have any strawberry yoghurt in the fridge.

- o -


End file.
